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Results are presented of an experimental study on the transition to geostrophic turbulence, and the detailed behaviour within the turbulence regime, in a rotating, laterally heated annulus of fluid. Both spatial and temporal characteristics are examined, and the results are presented in the form of wavenumber and frequency spectra as a function of a single external parameter, the rotation rate.The transition to turbulence proceeds in a sequence of steps from azimuthally symmetric (no waves present) to chaotic flow. The sequence includes doubly periodic flow (amplitude vacillation), semiperiodic flow (structural vacillation), and a transition zone where the characteristics undergo a gradual change to chaotic behaviour. The spectra in the transition zone are characterized by a gradual merging of the background signal with the spectral peaks defining regular wave flow as the rotation rate is increased.Within the geostrophic turbulence regime, the wavenumber spectra are characterized by a broad peak at the baroclinic scale and a power dependence of energy density on wavenumber at the high-wavenumber end of the spectrum. Our data reveal a significant dependence of the slope on the thermal Rossby number, ranging from −4.8 at RoT = 0.17 to −2.4 at RoT = 0.02. The frequency spectra also show a power dependence of the energy density on frequency at the high-frequency end of the Spectrum. We find a nominal −4 power which does not appear to be sensitive to changes in Rossby or Taylor number.

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This paper presents the results of experimental studies of the behaviour of different fluids (mercury, Pr = 0·0246; water, Pr = 7·16; and 5 cS silicone oil, Pr = 63) when each is contained in a rotating cylindrical annulus and subjected to an imposed radial temperature difference across the annulus. The results are summarized in the form of two-parameter regime diagrams (thermal Rossby number RoTvs. Taylor number Ta) at different Prandtl numbers Pr. The fluids are in contact above and below with rigid insulating boundaries. The range of thermal Rossby and Taylor numbers surveyed is 10−3 < RoT < 10, 105 < Ta < 109.The regime diagram for water with a rigid upper lid in contact with the fluid resembles in certain respects the more familiar regime diagram for water with a free upper surface obtained by Fultz (1956) and by Fowlis & Hide (1965). Significant differences do, however, occur and are discussed in a separate paper by Fein (1973). The regime diagram for silicone oil possesses no lower symmetric regime within the range of thermal Rossby and Taylor numbers surveyed; that for mercury possesses no upper symmetric regime within the range surveyed. In mercury, turbulence is observed at high Rossby numbers. An experimental traverse across the regime diagram in which the imposed temperature difference is held constant at ΔT = 5 °C and the rotation rate Ω is changed monotonically reveals a highly conductive temperature structure in mercury and a highly convective temperature structure in both water and silicone oil. The regular wave regime, which appears at all three Prandtl numbers, is found to shift towards higher Taylor and Rossby numbers with decreasing Prandtl number. As a result, a single point in two-dimensionless-parameter space (RoT = 5 × 10−1, Ta = 1 × 106) lies in the upper symmetric regime for 5 cS silicone oil (Pr = 63), in the regular wave regime for water (Pr = 7·16) and in the lower symmetric regime for mercury (Pr = 0·0246).